The Artpologist Collective

Aminatou Echard (France)

As an artist who works with experimental film and video installations, Aminatou's focus is how space transforms people and how people inhabit spaces. She conveys this idea by exploring the relationship between sound and image. Fieldwork is a crucial element in her artistic practice. After four years of working in Bolivia in ethnomusicology, she has started a new stage in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) where she has already spent four months in 2006 by collecting images and sounds to gain an understanding of the specific relationship between spaces and people. In 2007 she continued by doing video installation for the “Transformation of Space in Almaty” project with Artpologist group. Next works in preparation will come soon.

Her video installations were shown in the Soros center for contemporary Art, Almaty,  and in Berkeley with Artpologist presentation of "Transformation of Space in Almaty" and since 2004 in the french festivals Les Instants vidéo numériques et poétiques, Les Ecrans Documentaires, Les Inattendus, Côté Court.

Daniel Gallegos (USA)

Daniel started practicing art as graffiti writer from age thirteen. He was actively involved in the graffiti art movement in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1980's-1990's. He works with variety of media, including painting, drawing, watercolor, spray paint, installation, and performance.

One of the founding principles of Daniel's creative work is collaboration. He draws most of his creative inspiration from the collective approach to artistic production. Through his art, he explores relationships between individuals and their communities and helps create a sense of place. Daniel's goal is to combine art practice with different social sciences in order to investigate and understand manifestations of power in physical and cultural landscapes.

Daniel has exhibited his work at various sites throughout the world, including U.C. Berkeley, The Silk Road House, Tengri Umai Gallery, Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Almaty, the Richmond Art Center, CEC ArtsLink's Global Art Lab

Monica Linzner (USA)

Drawn to the idea of using art as a means of exploring emerging social issues, Monica joined the Artpologist Collective in the winter of 2009.  She attended Colorado College where she majored in Urban Studies with a focus on urban environmentalism and food systems. She wrote her senior these on grocery store redlining; i.e. the intersection of racial segregation and the politics of food retail and production.  Through Artpologist, Monica hopes to continue to examine how cities interact economically, socially and spatially.  She currently teaches art classes for homeless youth in Oakland.

Gaisha Madanova (Kazakhstan)

Gaisha is interested in living spaces as an object of her art. Her debut was the 2007 multimedia project "Transformations of Space in Almaty" by the art collective "Artpologist" where she made a photo installation about working spaces of visual artists in Almaty. Gaisha has exhibited her works in Bishkek, Moscow, and Rome. She studied architecture at the Almaty College of Construction and Management. She lives and works in Almaty.

Zhanara Nauruzbayeva (Kazakhstan)

Zhanara is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of anthropology at Stanford University. Her doctoral dissertation explores how different generations of visual artists have adapted to market in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Zhanara received a BA degree (magna cum laude) in Peace and Conflict Studies from Bryn Mawr College. She was also a junior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2002-2003.

Davon Ramos (USA)

A writer, director, and editor born and raised in Los Angeles, Davon and has been deeply entrenched in the underground music and art scene for a number of years. His art constantly examines and re-examines the nature of human relationship in the modern, consumer world.

After earning his undergraduate degree in Creative Writing with Honors at the University of Southern California, Davon Ramos founded his own production company.  Following several successful years of independently producing and directing music videos, commercials and documentaries, Davon went back to school in 2004 when he was accepted to the Graduate Production Program at the esteemed School of Cinematic Arts at USC. After graduate school he headed the original production arm of IFILM.com, an MTV Networks company, as a director/producer before returning to his roots as an independent creative director. He now operates as The Good Media Company. Davon is also published in several magazines and is the Editor and Creative Director of the online music journal mixtapemixtape!!!.